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Monthly Archives: March 2017

Editor’s Note: Big thanks to Karel and Boom Shaka Lacquer for writing this post! Please do stop by Boom Shaka Lacquer and show some love.

Nothing to Disclose

Hello there! I’m popping by today with a guest post since Stacie is currently facing the “Great Camera Lens Disaster of 2017.” I’m Karel and I am the head writer and nail polish addict at Boom Shaka Lacquer. I’m so happy to be here today and I’m going to share with you one of my favorite brands of all time!

Today I’m going to review a polish from Digital Nails! Now, Digital Nails was actually my first Indie Polish brand that I ever bought. Five years later and I’m still a loyal customer. Today we’re going to look at Ultimate Ginger:

Digital Nails – Ultimate Ginger

Firstly, let me say, this was an original version of this polish. One glitter in this polish became unavailable so Raph of Digital Nails substituted another glitter and renamed the polish so while this particular version is not available a newer version called Penultimate Ginger (which to my eye is virtually indistinguishable between it and the original) is still available.

Digital Nails – Ultimate Ginger

Ultimate (and Penultimate) Ginger is a crelly-based glitter polish. It is almost a jelly but it has a very slight bit of creme in the base so I would call it a crelly. The crelly base is a sheer but buildable turquoise and it is jam-packed with glittery goodness. There are white and yellow satin glitters, orange and emerald green metallic glitter, and itsy bitsy teensie aqua holographic glitters. It is a veritable cornucopia of glitter.

Plus, this polish is based on one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes of all time, Vincent and the Doctor. So this polish gets me right in the feels every time I see it. I love when two of my passions come together, in this case Doctor Who and Nail Polish!

Digital Nails – Ultimate Ginger

Application on this is lovely. It is a sheer polish so it does take three coats but they were easy peasy coats. I did not need to fish for glitter or worry that I wasn’t going to get a nice combination on the nail. It was not topcoat hungry so I was able to achieve a nice smooth finish with just a layer of my normal quick-dry topcoat.

Digital Nails – Ultimate Ginger (macro)

I hope that you enjoyed this post and I sincerely hope that Stacie will be back with you soon! If you’d like to check out more of my posts you’re more than welcome to visit me at my blog and social media. You can also get Penultimate Ginger and other polishes from Digital Nails’ shop! I’ll include all the stalker links you could ever want below!

Happy Monday, reader! It’s the official first day of spring, and it’s time for spring manicures. Probably nobody was thinking brown for spring, but it’s what I’m rocking. For a change of pace, I got some feathers out, and there’s something about birds and spring, right? For this look, I used Model City Polish‘s Dark Roast, feathers from a Ciaté nail art kit, and Digital Nails‘s Spectraflair holo top coat for an extra holo finish. All photos were taken in direct sunlight outdoors.

Dark Roast is a great holo. It’s a rich brown, but the holo is pretty strong, and there are these tiny gold shimmers in it. It dries shiny. I felt kinda bad putting the feathers over it, like it was too pretty to cover up. The feathers were kind of a pain, and as you can see, it looks a little messy, but I’m rolling with it. I used the holo top coat over the feathers just to pull it all together, and I think it came out all right.

I heard a sad rumor that Model City Polish closed down, and though I haven’t seen anything official, I do see that their etsy shop is on hiatus. That really bums me out. Model City was one of the first-ever indies I bought from, they gave me my first press samples, and everything they made was quality. It’s sad to see them go. I feel like a bad fan because I’ve just heard about it.

I don’t know where to get Ciaté’s nail art kits anymore. Digital Nails’s Spectraflair top coat is sold in their etsy shop.

I bought these products myself.

Hey reader! I’m so excited about today’s swatch. This is the first of my Indie Shop Atlanta purchases to make it to the blog, and it’s from a new-to-me brand. It also just came out and I don’t usually wear things so soon after release. This is Sakura Skies from Baroness X, one of the collaboration polishes in the most recent installment of The Color Box. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vive top coat.

Sakura Skies is a cornflower blue polish with flakies that shift from bright pink to gold. Application was easy; product consistency is a little thick due to all the flakies in the polish, but it wasn’t an issue. The flakies’ default setting is pink, and that’s the color I see on the nail most often; the gold pops up when directly facing the light source. The polish dries with a matte finish; I used top coat for shine.

If you’re unfamiliar with The Color Box, the box comes with five polishes that are all the same color family, which in this case is blue. Each polish is a collaboration between the polish maker and a blogger. The Sakura Skies concept came from xoxo, Jen. Jen and Baroness X made a great team, this is definitely my favorite polish in the box.

Outdoors, this polish is something else. The following photos were taken outside in direct sunlight. The shift is a little harder to get — it totally depends on the time of day — but it looks fantastic regardless.

Unfortunately, I just missed the pre-order cutoff for this box. The Color Box is a quarterly event; join the Facebook group to learn more about the box and to be able to vote on the color of future boxes. Watch the Baroness X website for overpour bottles of Sakura Skies and other products.

I bought this polish myself.

Hello, reader! Now that the Indie Shop stuff is out of the way, we’re back to our regularly-scheduled weekend swatches. Today’s swatch is not an Indie Shop polish, but you will be seeing those in coming weeks. No, this is a Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer prototype! This is JS 1.2, and I’m wearing it at three coats with one coat of Seche Vive top coat.

Prototype JS 1.2 is a white crelly with a colorful mix of glitters. Application was easy; the product consistency was just right, and the glitters brushed on evenly. It doesn’t look like it in photos, however. The white base is pretty opaque and obscures a lot of the glitters, so that classic translucent crelly look isn’t quite there. The polish dried with a glossy finish and was smooth to the touch. I used top coat for extra smoothness and shine.

I don’t think I will ever get tired of crellies like this. I know I say this every time I wear one, but seriously, I still remember when these were the new hotness and every maker had tons of them. Makers are doing these gorgeous shifters and shimmers now, but the glitter crelly will always be my fave.

I probably didn’t need to take sunlight photos of this polish, it basically looks the same in both situations. The following photos were taken outdoors.

Prototype JS 1.2 was a one-off and I’ve got the only bottle. Other Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers are sold in their online shop, though at publication time, they are taking a break.

I bought this polish myself.

Welcome back, reader! If you’re part of the indie polish community, you likely heard about The Indie Shop event that took place in Atlanta this past weekend. If not, just imagine a craft fair with nothing but nail polish. The Indie Shop, presented by Envy Lacquer, brought polish makers and polish addicts together in one place for a few hours of shopping and socializing. I was lucky enough to go, and of course, I took photos.

My journey to The Indie Shop starts at a MARTA station, Atlanta’s rapid transit system. I was a little too optimistic on how quickly MARTA could get me from downtown to Buckhead, and I actually ended up being an hour late to the show and missed the early VIP shopping window. As a result, a few things I wanted to grab were sold out before I even got there. I love mass transit, though, and I make it a point to use it when I’m travelling around a new city.

I was really surprised by the crowd size. I got there a bit after 11:00; these were all early access shoppers. Every booth had shoppers, and every maker was busy talking to customers, and not just about polish; I overheard conversations about drunk accents, Doctor Who, and tattoos, among other things. Though The Indie Shop is a pop-up store event, it was very much a social event also.

I met a lot of new people and I had the opportunity to try a lot of new brands. The only maker there that I was really familiar with was Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer, and while I’d heard of most of the others, I didn’t own anything they’d made. If you can believe it, this is the first time I’ve owned anything from brands like KBShimmer, Colors by Llarowe, and Bliss Polish. I tried to get something from every maker — I felt rude chatting someone up at their booth for ten minutes and not buy anything — but my card got declined most of the way through and I missed out on a few makers. I didn’t get to Joy Lacquer, Envy Lacquer, KBShimmer, or Pampered Polishes, unfortunately. I really wanted one of those KBS rainbow scrubs.

Scratch-off cards were a big part of the event; they contained discounts for the event and individual online shops.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience at The Indie Shop, and if Boyfriend ever allows me to return to an event like this, I’d love to go back. I spent so much, though, that I doubt I’ll get to do this again as a shopper. Maybe Wacie Nail Company will be a vendor at some point! Sometimes it seemed like the makers were having more fun than the customers anyway.

I loved Crystal Knockout‘s booth, and I think theirs was my favorite. They had a wide range of products, from polish to body to handmade jewelry. They had these holographic Luna from Sailor Moon earrings that I totally regret not buying. And they’re from Florida!

Let’s have a look at my haul, shall we? This was the first time I’d bought any polish in a year, and I’m happy to say I broke my no-buy in the most epic way possible. Fifteen of the polishes below were included in my VIP package, and I bought fifty more. I’m also trying mani bombs for the first time, as well as indie wax tarts.

These are the contents of the VIP bag. Since I was late, I didn’t look inside first, and I ended up with some dupes.

Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer: These Be Rubies, Fairy Favors, Siren’s Fever Dream, Starlight in the Gloom, Elfdan Thrall, The Cedar Forest, When the Nights Grow Cold, The Siren’s a Callin’, Green’s Alexandrite With Me, The Color Box

Dainty Digits: Stream of Enchantment. There were two versions, a light and a dark.

Bluebird Lacquer: Realm of the Fae, It’s Fall Over Me, Shine Bright Like a Rhinestone, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Looking Spritely, plus wax tarts, soaps, and acetone additive

Poetry Cowgirl Nail Polish: Faerie Whispers, Faerie Wishes She Could Be Here, VIPs Talking With the Trees, Find me a Four-Leaf Clover. Got the last one because it came with an extra bag of glitter. Like I’m going to pass up glitter.

Everything I saw there was gorgeous, but my favorite exclusives are Poetry Cowgirl’s Faerie Whispers and Color by Llarowe’s Genofeva of Bravant. Other favorites include Bluebird’s Shine Bright Like a Rhinestone, Pahlish’s Invisibility Cloak, and Baroness X’s Sakura Skies from the Color Box. I’m looking forward to swatching these guys in the future; I’ve had to shake up my Swatch Sunday schedule after buying all these, so you’ll get to see some of them soon.

Oh, and remember how I said I had some extra bottles of things? It just so happens that wacie.com‘s fourth anniversary was the same day as The Indie Shop, so look for a giveaway in the next few days. I’m putting together a package that will include a few things from my Indie Shop VIP bag, some Wacie Nail Company exclusives, and some other fun things I can find. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Hello! I feel like today’s mani is a special occasion because I’m using Essie’s Shine of the Times. Remember when this was the polish every nail addict needed but couldn’t find? I remember checking every drugstore in town when I heard it existed, and then I had to resort to buying one on Amazon. About a year after that, I did find two in the wild, hidden away in a Walgreens sale bin. It was the greatest day. For this look, I used Shine of the Times over Julep’s Char.

Char is the best undies for shine of the Times. It’s dark enough for the fiery flakies to look their best, but has just a hint of color. I love Shine of the Times over black, but it’s kind of basic. I love substituting a dark gray, blue, green, or plum for black. It feels a little more sophisticated. Plus, when it’s over dark blue, it kind of looks like unicorn pee.

I don’t think there’s a polish that Shine of the Times couldn’t make better, though. Honestly, I chose Char at random. I was totally prepared to layer it over any creme I plucked from the drawer, but now I can’t imagine a better combination.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any sunlight shots of this thanks to the impending winter storm, or for those of us in Florida, rain. I think I captured the shift pretty well, though, and my flakies came out sharp. I never get studio photos this good.

Shine of the Times, as you may know, was discontinued by Essie. Char may also be discontinued; it’s out of stock on julep.com.

I bought these polishes myself.

Hey reader! Welcome to the Empties Roundup for February 2017! Somehow, the shortest month of the year has been the most epic month for empties. Keep reading to see what I used up!

Toni & Guy Matt Texture Dry Shampoo

This is my second Toni & Guy dry shampoo, but I think I preferred the Cleanse dry-sham to the Matt Texture. Either way, I’m still scoping out a replacement; I tried the brunette Bumble and bumble dry-sham when I was at Sephora last, and I might give that one a go.

Curology Protective Lip Balm SPF 30

This was a leftover from when I was a Curology subscriber. The balm was really smooth and creamy and lasted a pretty long time, even overnight if I applied it just before bed. I forgot to photograph the inside of the tube to show its emptiness, but believe me, I dug out every last bit of it. I replaced it with Sun Bum’s banana lip balm. It’s not as good, even if it does smell like banana Laffy Taffy.

NYX Matte Finish Setting Spray

This stuff wasn’t bad, I guess. I didn’t notice any added makeup longevity when I used it, but it didn’t make things worse, so there’s that. I did buy a bottle of Urban Decay’s All Nighter to replace it, but I’m not entirely convinced I need a setting spray at all. Maybe in the summer.

Valentia Night Revive Retinol Serum

I’m a little sad to see this stuff go. It was a pretty gentle serum and I did see some softening of fine lines and a brighter complexion when I used it regularly. For now though, I want to try some other retinol serums and see if this is one I’ll come back to; I really want to try one from The Ordinary.

CeraVe PM Moisturizing Lotion

I feel like I had this thing forever. I probably will buy this again, but not for a while yet, since I’ve got so many other ones I want to work through first. Currently I’m working with Skinfood’s Cucumber and Lettuce Watery Emulsion, Shiseido’s Benefiance Nutriperfect Night Cream, and Valentia’s Pure Glow lotion. I think the latter breaks me out, but I’m trying it again to make sure it wasn’t hormonally-related.

Boots Botanics All Bright Radiance Concentrate Serum

I liked this stuff, too. My Target recently stopped selling Boots Botanics — Soap and Glory is in its old shelf space — so I don’t know if I’ll ever get another chance with this stuff, but I did enjoy it.

Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Serum

This particular bottle was from a GWP set, but I have a full-size bottle of it waiting for me after I finish up some other samples. I’m working on a sample bottle of Lancôme ‘s Advanced Genifique serum, and Philosophy’s When Hope is Not Enough after that.

LUSH Aqua Marina cleanser sample

Confession: this sample was like two years old. I got it when I was visiting Philadelphia. Should I have thrown it out? Absolutely. I didn’t notice any ill effects after using it up at least. I might consider a repurchase of this, or at least another sample. Clay cleansers are nice sometimes.

A’Pieu NonCo Tea Tree Spot Patches

I didn’t know what to expect from these, but I liked them. I wore them to bed whenever I noticed a pimple coming up, and in the morning, they’d be dried up. Amazing! I just wish they put more than twelve or so in the pack. Occasionally I had some fall off, but that happens.

TonyMoly Whitening Capsule Essence

I liked this. It was a clear gel that absorbed quickly and moisturized. I only had ten packets, so I probably didn’t see the intended results in the time I had with it, but I’d like to give a full-size product a shot.

Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Hand Soap, Geranium

I know hand soaps aren’t beauty products in the traditional sense, but I’ve found it difficult to get a good hand soap that doesn’t irritate my hands. This is important, regardless of whether or not you’re a nail blogger. I’ll never buy another hand soap.

Proclaim Coconut and Macadamia Nut Oil Hand Lotion

This stuff was pretty nice, and the tube was only a dollar from Sally Beauty Supply. It was moisturizing and the effects lasted a good long time, but I did find myself reapplying pretty often.

I won this in a giveaway! Thanks again to Kristi from BeginNails, because I loved this stuff and I hope to purchase my own full-size bottle eventually. The scent was fantastic and long-lasting, even after dish washing. I know it doesn’t look empty, but I cannot get that last bit out, so I’m calling it.

Seche Base ridge-filling top coat

This I didn’t love so much. I bought it by accident; I totally thought it was clear, since it was in a box with a white background. It was pretty white, streaky, and often interfered with jellies and other sheer polishes. I liked Seche Clear so I’ll probably go back to that, but right now I’m using Dream Polish’s Smooth Gem, another giveaway win from Kristi!

L’Occitane en Provence Extra-Gentle Milk Soap

So I got this from a thrift store. It’s pretty lovely stuff. I swore my loyalty to Mrs. Meyer’s a few photos ago, but I kind of lied, because I’d totally buy this soap again. I did have another bar so I was able to replace it quickly, but I may have to pay retail for one when the time comes.

Noni Papaya Pineapple Body Wash

This is from a hotel in Hawaii! You’ll notice I didn’t cut it open; it’s clear and I can see there isn’t much left in it anyway. It was nice stuff, but I’ve got other hotel minis to work though, lots of which are also from Hawaii.

Lancôme Nutrix Royal Body Creme

Another GWP product! This stuff was perfect for winter skin; it was rich and thick and lovely. I’ll definitely keep it in mind for when winter rolls around next year.

NSPA by Nirvana Spa Exotically Cream Coconut Shower Scrub

This wasn’t half-bad. It’s not the kind of scrub I usually buy; I go for the oily sugar ones. This one was very well scented, foamed easily, and wasn’t too harsh or abrasive.

This was some good soap and I’m a little sad it’s gone. The fragrance was strong and earthy and the bar had poppy seeds in it for gentle exfoliation. It was very nice. Even my boyfriend liked it, and he doesn’t like anything.

Miscellaneous

Who loves samples? I do! Here are some quick notes. The Skinfood apple mask was very hydrating. The Missha BB cream was too dark for me, but I liked the coverage. The Kate Somerville sensitive skin cream was amazing; I had a cold and lost the skin between my lip and nose for a while, and had to limit myself to products that wouldn’t irritate the raw skin. That one was gentle and didn’t burn at all. I loved it. The Julep Rock Star cream was actually an empty from last month that I forgot; it’s still a winner. The Koh Gen Do gommage gel was pretty nice; I’d never used a gommage gel and I was really impressed with the results. I’d like to try it again. The COSRX BHA liquid was amazing and I’m totally getting a full-size bottle. The Origins masks were also lovely; I bought a full-size of Drink Up Intensive the last time I was at Sephora.

Sheet Masks

My favorite of these was the Snail mask. It dried up some acne that was coming up, and that was really impressive. The Creme Shop mask was really wet and I was patting the essence in for like an hour after; I see this as a plus. The Skinfood mask felt really nice and I did see some brightness after I took it off. The Welcos Jeju mask didn’t leave me feeling oily in the morning like some masks do.

And finally, there you have it, the February 2017 empties roundup. If you’ve read this far down, thank you so much for reading all this. Did you finish up anything good? Have you tried any of these products? Let me know!

I bought these products myself.
Except for the one I won in a giveaway.
And except for the Valentia serum, that was previously a press sample.

Hello, reader! Today’s mani is a pretty simple one. I’m apparently still into negative-space manis, but really, I just wanted to do something with a textured polish that was still nail-arty, and this was just the direction it took. For this look, I used Emerald & Ash‘s Construction Season with Digital Nails‘s Spectraflair top coat.

I’ve talked before about how much I love the Road Trip collection from E&A. Unfortunately, I don’t have the complete collection, but the ones I do have have been a ton of fun to wear. The texture is unlike any other polish type; It’s a very fine grit, as opposed to chunky glitter or rough sand. It sparkles like sugar. This one happens to be Nickelodeon orange, which makes it my favorite.

I wanted a little something under the negative part of the nail, just to keep it from being completely bare, so I put a coat of Spectraflair top coat under Construction Season. You can barely tell it’s there, but I like the addition. I can’t see it at all indoors, but in the sun, you can see it’s barely-thereness.

Speaking of sunlight, here are some photos I took in direct sunlight. The orange got kind of washed out, and the color also suffers from an uncooperative camera. You can see the reflective goodness pretty well out here at least, as well as the aforementioned Spectraflair.

Construction Season has been discontinued by Emerald & Ash (though they’ve been MIA for quite some time). Digital Nails’s Spectraflair top coat and other polishes are sold in their etsy shop.

Hello, reader! Today’s swatch is all about Non-Corporeal Babysitter from Digital Nails. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vive.

Non-Corporeal Babysitter is a pink-tinted glitter topper with hot pink and white matte hexes and blue iridescent glitters. Even though it’s a topper, I chose to wear it alone at three coats because I wanted to see how opaque it would get. My bottle is old (from 2013!) and the product consistency is pretty thick; I know it’s meant to be thick since it’s loaded with glitter, but age may also be a factor. Long story short, I should have thinned it, because it was super thick at three coats and a little bit unmanageable. The polish tries quickly, though, and with a glossy finish. Top coat is necessary for smoothness because the glitter leaves texture.

I realize that by wearing it alone instead of layered over undies that I’m kind of doing it a disservice. I know it’s probably not meant to be worn this way, but I really just wanted to see what it looked like. Generally, I like the look. It’s a little messy, but I love the pink, I love the sheer quantity of glitter, and in general, it’s just fun. In the future, I think I’ll use it over a pink base.

For once, I think I prefer a polish in the studio rather than in the sunlight. Direct sunlight washed out a lot of the iridescent glitters, which are the best glitters in the polish. The bright-pinkness got washed out, too.

Non-Corporeal Babysitter isn’t in stock, but other Digital Nails polishes are availabe in their etsy shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Hello, reader! Today’s polish is a stunner, but it was also very hard to photograph. Ever get a pink so hot the camera loses it? This is one of those. Say hello to Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Sirène Fatale; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vive top coat.

We’re number one!

Sirène Fatale is a neon pink polish with a fine blue shimmer throughout; unfortunately, the shimmer pulls purple in my photos. Application was very easy; the product consistency was excellent and I had no issues with coverage. It dries with a satin finish, as neons tend to do. I used top coat for extra shine and protection.

I love a good neon pink, and I’m really sorry I couldn’t do this one justice in photos. It’s so much brighter than it looks here, and the shimmer is so much more intense. It’s got all the hallmarks of a bright neon, otherwise; look how tan my fingers look. Sunlight photos were even worse, believe it or not. The color came out all washed out and completely unlike real life. It’s kind of fun how much of an enigma this polish is, like you have to see it in person to really see it.

Sirène Fatale was a limited edition polish and is no longer available. Other BEGL polishes are available from their online store.